The Phillies erupted last night for 12 hits and nine runs last night against Orioles pitching. They will be facing facing righty Tommy Hunter today. Hunter started the season with the Orioles before being sent down to Triple-A Norfolk to work on some things. If the Phillies get on him early, it will force the Baltimore bullpen to once again put some long work in.

Vance Worley is making his second start since coming back from the DL. He gave up three runs in four innings last week against the Dodgers. Worley already has two losses this season. He only had three all of last year.

Shane Victorino has five hits in his last three games including two home runs. The Phillies will need similar offensive output from their center fielder to keep this momentum moving forward.

Your Gameday Beer: Tonight’s featured brew is Rogue Northwestern Ale, an India Red Ale from Oregon. With all the rain the Delaware Valley has been experiencing, it’s starting to feel like we live up there. This beer was recommended by one of our loyal readers, Chris, who considers it an A+ beer. Have it with some fresh fish or other local seafood.

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0 Comments

Jeff

June 9, 2012 at 4:55 pm

vance suxs. he really does. one hit wonder. go away you mohawk geek. could of traded him when he had his one year wonder. get rid of shane. get rid of utley. little wuss. get rid of me from this horrible site

When we have to rely on Fontenot, Luna, Thome, and MiniMart we’re in deep poop poop. Trade Lee now to get the $$ for Cole’s contract and some young potential who can bring a runner in scoring position home and catch the ball. I don’t know how many errors they gave our 2B today but it should be 3 and along with JRoll’s and Worley we now have 5 extra outs we gave the O’s. Oops I forgot the ball Pence threw over Rollins head at second from about 20 yards away, UGH.

It’s really at the professional level of baseball 6 errors however since the official scorer is from the home team they gave their boys hits on some of them. Does anyone realize we have hit into 4 DPs in this game and along with 6 extra outs we gave the O’s I guess we’re lucky to be tied at four.

Managers rarely use a closer in a tie game on the road. You know that. Even if Papelbon successfully pitched the 12th (which isn’t a given with his track record in non save situations), then what? Let him pitch the 13th?

This isn’t a good team. Their record has nothing to do with how the closer has been used. They just have too many borderline major league players thrust into prominent roles.

In a tie game, with the game on the line you should generally do this:

1. Use your best reliever.
2. Use your next best reliever.
3. Use your next best reliever.
…et cetera.

If you lose after putting your best players in the game, then you lose and there’s not much you can do about it. But if you lose while your best players are on the bench you’re a moron. And just because there are lots of other morons in baseball doesn’t mean I can’t criticize the moron running the team I follow, just as other fans should question when their managers do something stupid.

“Everybody does it!” isn’t a defense for sub-optimal use of your bullpen.

I said “with the game on the line” which means, when you lose if you give up a run. That means the bottom of the 9th inning (or extras) on the road.

So I would have pitched him in the 9th inning. And then, in the 10th inning I would have used the next best available reliever. And so on.

Why in the world would you want to use a lesser quality pitcher in a tie game that you will lose if you give up one run, when you have better options available? It makes no sense. If you trust a pitcher (Qualls, then Rosenberg) to pitch in a situation where you lose the game if they give up a run, surely you trust them when you have a lead, right? Because that’s a LOWER leverage situation than a tie game.

Really, think this through. Why would you want to use a lesser pitcher in a higher leverage situation?

Guess what? They still would have lost if Papelbon pitched the 9th. Qualls pitched a scoreless 9th, and I don’t think Papelbon could have exceeded that performance. So what the hell are you complaining about?

It’s a bad team dude. They’ve earned their record. It has nothing to do with Papelbon, and everything to do with mediocre talent on the field.

I see mad logic to the way you think here Eric. I t does make sense on certain levels. The extra innings games turn into clusterf$cks anyway. I would think that you don’t want to burn your closer when they’re not closing….in general.

Yankees would take Lee in a second, but no way the Phils should trade him. I realize we’re stuck in the mud, but with a Cy young winner, an MVP, the leagues top 2nd baseman and 4 relief pitchers out there isn’t much you can do, but try to stay as close as you can until the troops arrive. I’d say if the Phils are 10 or more back from the WC in the lose column near the deadline I’d get what I could for Victorino, Pence, Pierre, Thome… Until then you shouldn’t do anything.